Fiber-preparing machine.



- PATENTED DBG.25,1906. I

D. E. BADCLYF-EE. FIBER PREPARING MACHINE.

APPLIUATIQNrunnnmzmeo'm v I ,11 l't'ornqya' BERcwZa Wz'i'measea.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DICK EDWARDS RADCLYFFE, OF HYTHE END, sTAINEs'ENGLAND.

I FIBER-PREPARING MACHINE. i

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 25, 1906.

Application filed December 28, 1905. Serial No. 293,650.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DICK EDWARDS RAD- GLYFFE, manufacturer, a subject of the, King of Great Britain, residin at Hythe End, Staines, in the county of Middlesex, England, have invented a Fiber-Preparing Machine, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a combination gill-box and fiber-softening machine for preparing and opening or otherwise treating ber or fibrous material preparatory to combing, and is designed more especially for treatin vegetable fibers, such as ramie, rhea, china-grass, or the like, but may be used for treating or preparing any other fibers to which same may be applicable.

I employ any suitable gill-box-such, for example, as that set forth in'British Patent N 0. 7,404 of 1897, and according to the present invention I arrange and mount in combination with said gill-box a plurality of rollers advantageously arranged in pairs. For example, I find it advantageous to employ about twenty or twenty-one pairs of rollers, (i. e., forty or forty-two rollers,) or thereabout, some of said rollers being fluted or ribbed or corrugated or otherwise formed other than smooth in any suitable manner,

while others of said rollers may be plain rollers. For example, with twenty-one pairs of rollers six adjoining pairs may be fluted, (or

other. than plain,) and then one pair plain,

and the next six pairs fluted, and the next pair plain, and so on. These plurality of rollers are mounted just in front of the feedapron leading to the gills on the gill-box part of the machine, and said rollers are advantageously set fairly close together in the longitudinal direction so as to occupy as little space as possible, while the individual pairs of rollers are vertically (or otherwise) disposed relatively to one another and springmounted or weighted, &c., in such Wise as to exert the desired crushing action or pressure or softening action on the fibrous stems or straws or other fibrous material as it is being passedthrough same on its way to the gillbox, and thereby soften or act on such fibrous material so as to exert a very beneficial effect thereon before same is acted on by the gills, which latter are thereby also enabled to will be found to have been very beneficially acted on by the complete combination-machine, and many'advantages result, including saving of labor, as well as improvement in the fibrous material.

The accompanying drawing shows part of the gills A of a gill-box with twenty-one pairs of rollers arranged and combined therewith according to thepresent invention, so that i the fibrous material on its way to the gill-box passes first through the said twenty one pairs of rollers B B some of which rollers' viz. each seventh pair of rollers B are shown as plain rollers, while all the other rollers B are shown as fluted rollers.

D is the feed-apron, on which the fibrous material is laid and by means of which the latter is fed in between the plurality of pairs of rollers B B E is endless traveling belt, onto which the *rt'pllers B B and conveyed (fed) into the gill- What I claim is In a device of the character described, the combination with the gill-box, ofmeans for crushing and softening the fiber preparatory to combing, comprising a series of rollers arranged in pairs, one roller above the other and spring-pressed into close engagement, means for feeding the fibers between said rollers, means for receiving said fibers after passage through said rollers and delivering the same to the gill-box, said rollers being provided with fluted faces throughout the series and pairs of plain or smooth-faced rollers interspaced at fixed intervals throughout the series of fluted rollers, substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two witnesses.

. DICK EDWARDS RADCLYFFE. Witnesses: Y

H. D. JAMEsoN, A. NUTTING.

fibrous material is delivered from the said 

